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Re: THOUGHTS: Pale Fire timeline and Kinbote's commentary
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JM [ to JF and MR}: Charles Kinbote used the same emblem as did Sebastian Knight in VN's former novel.
How do you ( JF anbd MR) interpret this?
Pale Fire, (CK notes to line 71): I wish to beg her...for an immediate restitution of his rights (the plan is mine and is clearly signed with a black chess-king crown after "Kinbote")
TRLSK: (chapter 2) I dimly recollect the verse was very romantic, full of dark roses and stars and the call of the sea; but one detail stands out perfectly plain in my memory: the signature under each poem was a little black chess-knight drawn in ink.
Jerry Friedman [to Matt Roth] I hadn't really thought about what secrets were blasted up...and necessitated my removal to this modest mountain cabin."... Hustle him into an insane asylum?
JM: Another set of quotes suggests it took CK some time before he reached, freely enough, his mountain cabin. He mentions a plane trip to NY and also, his driving to Cedarn all the way from New Wye.
Do you think he was lying in the foreword and on his commentaries?
Fwd: I was forced to leave New Wye soon after my last interview with the jailed killer. The writing of the commentary had to be postponed until I could find a new incognito in quieter surroundings, but practical matters concerning the poem had to be settled at once. I took a plane to New York, had the manuscript photographed, came to terms with one of Shade's publishers.
Later, note to line 71: With commendable alacrity, Professor Hurley produced an Appreciation of John Shade's published works within a month after the poet's death. It came out in a skimpy literary review, whose name momentarily escapes me, and was shown to me in Chicago where I interrupted for a couple of days my automobile journey from New Wye to Cedarn, in these grim autumnal mountains.
JF to MR: You seem to picture Kinbote's discovery that the "amusement park" is just campers as coming with his first view in daylight... maybe the campsite "across the road" (note to lines 609-614)is actually out of sight, and Kinbote's aversion to the music keeps him from climbing a hill to see what's there.
JM: I hope I'm not too off the mark, here! In my interpretation the amusement park (noise, carrousel, rotating lights) and the motor lodge (mainly its trucks), present in both CK's and Shade's text, suggest some mental disturbance both shared:
I'll quote only the part with trucks...
John Shade's poem: lines 931-934: And while the safety blade with scrape and screak/ Travels across the country of my cheek,/ Cars on the highway pass, and up the steep/ Incline big trucks around my jawbone creep,[...]
CK's commentary:
(a) to line 934: I must say I do not remember hearing very often "big trucks" passing in our vicinity. Loud cars, yes - but not trucks.;
(b) Line 1000: ..dying J.Shade "I'll have to write again to Bob Wells [the town mayor] about those damned Tuesday night trucks."...
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How do you ( JF anbd MR) interpret this?
Pale Fire, (CK notes to line 71): I wish to beg her...for an immediate restitution of his rights (the plan is mine and is clearly signed with a black chess-king crown after "Kinbote")
TRLSK: (chapter 2) I dimly recollect the verse was very romantic, full of dark roses and stars and the call of the sea; but one detail stands out perfectly plain in my memory: the signature under each poem was a little black chess-knight drawn in ink.
Jerry Friedman [to Matt Roth] I hadn't really thought about what secrets were blasted up...and necessitated my removal to this modest mountain cabin."... Hustle him into an insane asylum?
JM: Another set of quotes suggests it took CK some time before he reached, freely enough, his mountain cabin. He mentions a plane trip to NY and also, his driving to Cedarn all the way from New Wye.
Do you think he was lying in the foreword and on his commentaries?
Fwd: I was forced to leave New Wye soon after my last interview with the jailed killer. The writing of the commentary had to be postponed until I could find a new incognito in quieter surroundings, but practical matters concerning the poem had to be settled at once. I took a plane to New York, had the manuscript photographed, came to terms with one of Shade's publishers.
Later, note to line 71: With commendable alacrity, Professor Hurley produced an Appreciation of John Shade's published works within a month after the poet's death. It came out in a skimpy literary review, whose name momentarily escapes me, and was shown to me in Chicago where I interrupted for a couple of days my automobile journey from New Wye to Cedarn, in these grim autumnal mountains.
JF to MR: You seem to picture Kinbote's discovery that the "amusement park" is just campers as coming with his first view in daylight... maybe the campsite "across the road" (note to lines 609-614)is actually out of sight, and Kinbote's aversion to the music keeps him from climbing a hill to see what's there.
JM: I hope I'm not too off the mark, here! In my interpretation the amusement park (noise, carrousel, rotating lights) and the motor lodge (mainly its trucks), present in both CK's and Shade's text, suggest some mental disturbance both shared:
I'll quote only the part with trucks...
John Shade's poem: lines 931-934: And while the safety blade with scrape and screak/ Travels across the country of my cheek,/ Cars on the highway pass, and up the steep/ Incline big trucks around my jawbone creep,[...]
CK's commentary:
(a) to line 934: I must say I do not remember hearing very often "big trucks" passing in our vicinity. Loud cars, yes - but not trucks.;
(b) Line 1000: ..dying J.Shade "I'll have to write again to Bob Wells [the town mayor] about those damned Tuesday night trucks."...
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/